1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the high cost of shipping problem. Many marketers are challenged with the need to create pre-packed displays that are easy to set up and meet stringent size constraints set by retail stores. Also in our competitive retail environment there is more and more pressure on marketers to produce lower cost products and lower cost merchandisers to display their products in-store. This has forced many marketers to travel great distances, including overseas, to seek out low cost suppliers, as a result, these marketers often incur heavy shipping costs in delivering their finished goods to retailers. These high shipping costs often result in higher costs to the customers, or lower profits to the marketers and/or their retail partners. To manage these heavy shipping costs, there is a growing need for displays to ship more and more efficiently with minimal “empty or air” space, thereby maximizing the number of displays that will fit on a pallet for shipment. Any solutions to help maximize the number of displays per pallet are welcomed by marketers that ship product over great distances. Further there is a growing need for more “selling” space on a display.
Although there are many display merchandisers available to marketers, they are not always very good at balancing between, holding product efficiently and having enough space on the display to carry “selling” messages to help sell the product at retail, or in certain instances where it would be important to have the extra space in a display to show a product out of its package, such as in pop up greeting cards, pop up maps and certain pop up books. It is well known that if space is required in a display to feature “selling” messages, then less space is available to merchandise the products, and/or it would cost more to ship the products. The “empty” space in the front portion of a display is ideal for selling messages, but unfortunately all too often it is cut back in favor of having more products in a display, packed in such a way so that there is little space left for selling messages. It would be useful if there were temporary, semi-permanent, and permanent display structures that allowed marketers a better balance between having enough product in a display that ships efficiently and having adequate space for selling messages, without incurring increased shipping costs. Further, it would be desired that these displays are easy to manufacture, pack out, and set-up in-store.
2. Description of the Prior Art
1. Certain items which are usually shipped and merchandised flat, but that benefit from being displayed in an open position. Items that fall into this category include pop-up greeting cards, pop-up maps, pop up books, etc.
Pop-up greeting cards and pop-up maps are shipped flat in order to appreciate shipping efficiencies and to protect the product. Many companies selling these items will often require that an open sample is displayed in order to stimulate interest and purchase. One such company, POP SHOTS, based in Westport, Conn. ships all of their temporary and seasonal displays with an open sample of each card in their display. A display that features 12 different cards will have 12 “open” card samples for easy viewing by customers. Although this open view makes it easier to view pop-up cards, it certainly increases the cost of the display, as less cards can be packed in each display and the inefficient pack out increases the shipping cost of the display, thereby increasing the cost of the product to the retailer and/or the customer, or reducing the potential profit to the manufacturer. To elaborate, because pop-up cards require much hand labor for assembly, they are often produced in countries where the cost of labor is significantly lower than in the US, in countries such as China or India or Mexico. As a result, the cost of shipping is significant, especially if a large portion of the display being shipped to US retailers is used for the presentation of “open” pop-up greeting cards. Additionally they must be shipped in a very sturdy display to ensure that the “open” cards arrive in good saleable condition. Having a display structure that could better protect their product, and ship more efficiently and at a lower cost would be a valuable and sought after solution by all companies involved in manufacturing and selling such items.
2. Certain items are merchandised in a container with shelves with a fixed position and with empty space between the shelves to allow for easy viewing of the product and for easy access to the product.
There are a multitude of existing options for merchandising packaged goods, candies, health and beauty products, novelty items, and many other items sold in retail stores. Many displays currently in the marketplace are made as simple boxlike tray structures that sit on a base, where the product is stacked inside the tray (FIG. 22). This style of display often must be viewed from the front of the display because when it is viewed indirectly from the side, the sides of the boxlike trays obstruct to the product view. In a competitive marketplace, there is an ongoing need, to produce displays that offer an “open” look, meaning minimizing the amount of display that is seen and maximizing the amount of product that is seen by customers. To address that problem, some displays offer a flat backer panel with shelves or trays attached in a fixed position, giving the display an “open” look, offering customers a wider viewing angle and easy access to the product in the display. These displays, although attractive are very inefficiently constructed, as they usually have a significant amount of “empty or air” space between the fixed product trays, making them less efficient to ship (FIG. 23). Using conventional construction techniques, the more “open” the look of the display, the more “empty or air” space it needs to ship with. Finding a solution that both allows for a wider angle of viewing of the display at retail while maximizing shipping efficiency would enable many of today's marketers to sell more while shipping more efficiently, resulting in lower prices and/or larger profits.
3. Certain items could benefit, from an ad panel that is permanently (or near permanently) attached to the product shelves
In keeping with the need to ship more efficiently, and to be able to sell more at retail, many manufacturers are seeking innovative ways to present their products in “open” style displays without losing any of the selling power, while managing their production and shipping costs. The power of in-store marketing is well known, with the early success of industry pioneer, ActMedia which was later sold to Rupert Murdoch' News Corp. News Corp's Smart Source division is today's industry leader in in-store marketing. The number most quoted is that more than 70% of the product purchasing decision are made in-store. This highly focused, and powerful buying group, makes marketers take notice of any useful ad vehicles available to them in store. The most frequently used advertising and promotional vehicles are shelf advertising, promotional displays, advertising in aisles, on carts, on video monitors, and on floor graphics, etc. It is also well known to use shipper displays as ad vehicles, since having advertising messages printed on the same display that is holding the advertised product is certain to help sell more of the product. The inherent problem with using shippers as ad vehicles is that they are often designed to hold product, and not necessarily to be ad vehicles. There is constant pressure to pack more and more product into a display, thereby reducing the amount of available ad space on the shipper. The constant struggle is between the need to pack more products into a display and the need to have the “ad” space necessary to help sell the products. The more space the product takes, the less space there is for the advertising on the display. The most popular solutions include having the ad messages printed on a separate “header” card that is placed into special slots at the top of a display. Often these “header” cards will obstruct the customer's view of other products, and will be removed by store clerks, competitors and even by store customers. Some displays address these problems in other ways, however often at a significant cost. Consider displays that offer beautiful flat display panels printed with advertising messages, that have trays or hooks attached that hold products in an “open” fashion. Again, such displays often ship with lots of “empty” space at a significant cost, or the trays are shipped pre-packed separately requiring significant effort by store clerks, or by specially trained merchandising personnel to set up the separate trays into position on these displays. Finding a display solution that better advertises a product without obstructing the customers view, and will not increase in the cost of shipping, and is easy to set up by existing store clerks, will certainly enable marketers to sell more, ship more efficiently, have better relations with retailers, resulting in their being able to offer their products at lower prices and/or enjoy larger profits.
4. Certain current display structures allow for separate shelves to be integrated into a permanent backer
In certain models of organizers such as sold in hardware stores, and in certain retail fixtures such as slat walls, there are shelf systems designed to fit into a separate backer so as to easily display the contents of the shelves and to provide easy access to the products in the shelves. These systems however are only designed with the intent of displaying the products in an organized and easy to view and access fashion, and are not concerned with the need of having the shelves ship attached in a “nesting” way for efficient shipping, and ease of set up as in a retail pre-pack shipper display.